Monday, April 25, 2016

Since I've got nothing else running at the moment, I thought that anyone who may not have seen these nifty banners promoting the upcoming film X-Men: Apocalypse would enjoy giving their eyeballs a sample.

Monday, April 4, 2016

On Saturday I attended the SC Comicon 2016 in Greenville, South Carolina, a new show on the map that is only in its third year, if I'm not mistaken. Given that this convention is held literally in my backyard, it was only my first time going to the show due to committments having tailgunned my participation the other times that it was held.

I was very surprised to see the massive turnout for the event and can only believe that Rob Young of Borderlands in Greenville somehow managed to find that elusive sweet spot on the annual calendar between other large cons in this area (Heroescon in Charlotte, NC and Dragoncon in Atlanta, GA) that appeals to a large contingent of fans between the more established events?

In addition to over a hundred guest artists including Neal Adams, Greg Capullo, George Perez and others, there were celebrity guests from fan favoritie films and TV series such as Aaron Douglas (Battlestar: Galactica), Sean Maher (Firefly), Helen Slater (Supergirl) and more. I picked up a handful of bronze age gems to fill holes in my collection. Chamber of Chills # 6 (Sept.1973); Dead of Night # 8 (Feb.1975); Jungle Action # 21 (May 1976); Luke Cage # 16 (Dec.1973); Marvel Premiere # 47 (Apr.1979); Thor #216 (Oct.1973); and two issues of Warlock #'s 4 & 6 (Feb/Jun.1973). In addition to those classic comics, I picked up almost a complete set of signed autograph cards previously issued by the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund featuring Neil Gaiman, Peter David, Larry Marder, and many others within the industry.

I had a great time at this show and plan on making it a part of my yearly "must do's" so kudos to Borderlands and Rob Young for knocking this con out of the park.

How it all began ....

In 1933, publishers at Eastern Color Press, intent to make better use of their printing equipment (which frequently sat idle between jobs), came up with the idea of printing an 8-page comic section that could be folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format. The result was the first modern comic book. Containing reprints of newspaper comic strips, this experimental comic book titled "Funnies On Parade" was given away for free. It proved so popular that the following year Eastern published "Famous Funnies" and took the bold step of selling the comic for ten cents through chain stores. The enterprise was a smashing success and Eastern began churning out numerous reprints on a monthly basis. Other publishers, eager to get in on the profits, jumped on the bandwagon and the comic book industry was born!